Bangladesh runs past forex-reserves risks as its gross dollar stock stood at US$26.81 billion by official count, as of June 30, after a prolonged slide since the middle of 2022.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) accounting method called BPM-6, the foreign-exchange reserves, however, amounted to $21.84 billion.
At the end of June 30, the net international reserves (NIR) or usable foreign currencies reached $16.77 billion, a Bangladesh Bank spokesperson disclosed.
Md Mezbaul Haque told the FE that more than $2.0 billion dollars had been added up to the central-bank account by June 30. "And the NIR rose to $16.77 billion."
This much-sought-after rise in the foreign-exchange reserves is mainly due to the release of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan tranche worth $1.115 billion in the third take. Besides, other sources, including the World Bank, the AIIB, and South Korea, also contributed to this upturn.
Even during the first few weeks of June 2024, the NIR was recorded as less than $13 billion-down the risk line.
With this amount of reserves, three months' import requirement can be met, assuming monthly expenses of $5.0 billion.
Usually, a country should have reserves equal to a minimum three months' import payments. By that standard, Bangladesh is now in a marginal position.
The reserves had started climbing down at the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. The government then applied for the IMF loan in July in 2022.
Bangladesh is now taking financial support from the IMF and it approved the third instalment on June 24 from a lending package of $4.70 billion. The first instalment of $476.27 million came in February 2023. The second instalment of around $681 million came in December last year.
The entire amount of the loan will be disbursed in seven instalments.
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